Port-au-Prince , Haiti -LRB- CNN -RRB- -- We had not been in Port-au-Prince in a month , not since those horrible days following the earthquake when the city looked like wreckage .

The city seemed so upbeat when we arrived Saturday morning on one of the first flights in since commercial airlines resumed service . Musicians wearing Western Union T-shirts greeted us near the hanger that now passes as baggage claim . Next to our hotel , street vendors peddled souvenirs outside a tent city surrounding the presidential palace .

But those optimistic signs were eclipsed Sunday night when a torrent of rain poured down on this wounded city where outdoor tent communities have sprouted up in every empty space . Then , just after 4:30 a.m. Monday , an aftershock of magnitude 4.75 shook and shook and finally gave a last forceful jerk before stopping . You could hear the wails on the street , the confused voices of people arguing over whether to stay outside or risk going back in .

This one-two punch of natural forces reverberated through the most vulnerable communities .

Full coverage of the aftermath of the earthquake in Haiti

Ariana Manassero , 17 , raced into the main room of her home following the tremor . Her parents direct the Maison de Lumiere , but the girls ' home is unstable , so Ariana watches over the little ones at her house . They immediately started screaming . `` When is it going to end ? '' she asked before spending her day coddling some very traumatized children .

Daphne , 4 , clung to Ariana , shaking , acting out , sobbing for no good reason . The big quake on January 12 had rattled a cinder block wall in her play yard , crushing her leg , which now has a cherry red cast . The aftershock left her completely undone .

All day , staff members of Maison surveyed the damage to their community . A tent city they helped build across from their school had puddles of water sitting in the `` homes . ''

Women ran up to the staff asking for food , new tarps and clean water for their children . The same scene unfolded in a nearby ravine whose inhabitants had attended a Sunday morning service at Maison . That day , women from the ravine had come escorting children who 'd been washed with soap and rain water . Singing and laughing had filled the air .

By Monday , the heavy rain had soaked their tents where the `` roofs '' are made of scarves and sheets . The weather had become a great equalizer , reducing the people and the animals to the same conditions . In one alley , a father bundled a newborn with whatever he could find . In another , a dog cuddled her new puppies . Baby goats foraged for food in the garbage . Chicks picked at droppings .

No one had eaten fresh food in a week , and the Maison staff brought baby formula and rice . People pushed aside the dogs , the goats and the chicks and neatly lined up . Sad stories floated around the crowd . A woman who had attended the services had died after the aftershock , her heart suddenly seizing . A missionary worried aloud about a newborn wrapped in plastic whose parents had no formula for the baby 's first five days .

The situation only worsened early Tuesday .

For the second time in as many days , an earthquake struck in the overnight hours .

The magnitude 4.7 aftershock was centered about 20 miles west-southwest of Port-au-Prince . It hit at 1:26 a.m. Tuesday , the U.S. Geological Survey reported . A second smaller quake shook the area a few minutes later . No immediate reports of damage were made , but the aftershock sent frightened people once again out into the bug-filled night .

When is this going to end ? It does n't seem like an answerable question .

The rain swells the latrines and unearths the sewage . Aftershocks rattle nerves and rearrange piles of debris . People sleeping outside now feel threatened by the rains , but sleeping inside carries the threat of the seemingly never-ending aftershocks .

In the food line , the crowd was so quiet for people who looked hungry and faced a long wait . Not much to say when a step forward is followed by a big leap back .

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CNN 's Soledad O'Brien and her crew return to Port-au-Prince more than a month after quake

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At first , they see signs of optimism among the people

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A torrential rain and sharp aftershocks quickly squelch the new-found hope

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Misery continues to stalk people who are weary of battling nature 's harsh realties